electronics, jewelry and credit cards. residents in the area are on high alert. >> pretty unfair. especially when they take advantage of people who are not home. this is not a very rich neighborhood. so, people are struggling just like everybody where else. >> cheverly police released this surveillance video. here, you see one of the suspects try to sell a laptop he had stolen from employees to a radio shack. a different suspect believed to be part of the same group was picked up by surveillance cameras as he tried withdraw money using a stolen a text m card. now, police are sending out a strong word of caution. >> anything that doesn't seem normal, anyone you haven't seen before, anyone that may be seeming like they're staking out a house, please definitely give us a call. >> reporter: i'm ken molestina, 9news now. four tearings are facing arson charges after they set two garages on fire in urbana. frederick county police arrested four 16-year-olds.

the boys used marine flares to set fires to garages in the villages of urbana neighborhood. surveillance video from a local walmart showed the boys shoplifting the flares. officers say that is how they track down the suspects. the fires cost an estimated $130,000 in damage. man accused of slashing women's hinds while they were shopping in northern virginia is now in peru according to police. now, investigators are trying to get johnny timmontell back here to the u.s. to stand trial. a warrant was issued for his arrest. he used a razor blade or box cutter to cut nine women while they were shopping. a government contractor stuck in cuba says he feels fine and is in good spirits. alan grossman has been there for two years, accused of trying to undermine the cuban government. this is gross in a military hospital in cuba. these picture were taken by adele la. she and others spent two hours

with gross on monday. warren says gross looks healthy. gross insists he is innocent of the charges. the occupy protestors who set up camp at freedom plaza will be hanging out there for a little while longer. the national park service says the group's new permit runs from january 1st through february 28th. the current permit runs out on friday. the group has been camping out at freedom plaza since october. they protest everything from corporate greed to the continued presence of u.s. troops in afghanistan. well, for some commuters, a new year will mean more money getting to work -- spending more money to get to work. those taking part in the commuter tax benefit will have the amount of untaxed dollars refunded to them go from $230 right now down to $125. but the parking portion will get a $10 bump up to $240. some who disagree with the changes say it will only encourage more people to drive causing more congestion on the roads which are already

clogged. >> i mean it is stupid. but then i just consider the source and congress and stupid are somewhat synonymous to me. >> metro says it will take a hit, too. it expects a 3% drop in ridership which equals about $16 million a year. well, if you park in d.c., chances are at some point, you're going to end up with a parking ticket. new figures released yesterday say d.c. issued nearly two million parking tickets in 14 months. as delia gonsalves reports, aaa is calling it excessive. >> reporter: even on a windy day, that parking ticket will not blow away. >> we have a problem here. >> aaa mid-atlantic says district officers wrote 1.6 million parking tickets by may. the city collected $50 million and is on track to far surpass last overrave you in of $80.4 million. >> a lot of this motivated by

the profit margin. >> i understand that for safety purposes. fire trucks and everything. but they're making a killing on it. >> off meters alone, the city has grossed a whopping $9.5 million in just three months! money which goes to the district's general fund. >> if you're using the revenue of the tickets for the proper funding of other programs, then is ok. >> many people complain about them being trigger-happy. that's exactly what they are. in many cases, they start writing the ticket before the meter actually expires. >> as we followed a parking enforcement officer around 21st, he appeared to do just that. enter a vehicle's tag number and then walk away, only to return and print the ticket the moment the meter ran out. while many are just doing their job, some get a bad rap. >> between baltimore and washington, i call them the ladies of tape. they're not ambassadors for the city. they're going around just to raise revenue and charge you fines for parking.

that's horrible. the more we can do to kind of not give them that opportunity, the better it is for me and my family. >> delia gonsalves, 9news now. >> when you break it down, 1.6 million parking tickets is equal to more than 5,000 tickets per day. 350 an hour and 5 every minute until 10:00 p.m. the only other cities with more tickets, chicago and new york. also making news at this hour, at least seven people died, 80 more injured in ian mar. inside a storage warehouse in myanmar's biggest city. witnesses say they heard one big explosion and then several smaller ones. the explosion was so strong, people who didn't live in the area felt the shocks. north korea says kim jong il's son is now the supreme leader of the ruling party. the announcement was made yesterday in front of tens of thousands of people gathered to memorialize the late kim jong il in the main plaza.

the ceremonial head of state said the new leader inherit his father's ideology, character and cause. kim jong-un watched from a balcony with his head bowed during a memorial service. it began with a silent tribute to kim jong il who led the country's 24 million people after taking control in 1994 when his father died. a man trying to sell his xbox on craigslist ended up getting shot at but the would- be thief got a surprise of his own. the buyer went to the man's house to see the console. the buyer supposedly calls his friend to bring in the money. instead, they ran in the house waving the gun. they made the victim get on his knees and put his hands behind his back. the homeowner kept his gun there. a third is still on the loose. a new front-runner on the race to be g.o.p. candidate and michele bachmann on a loses her statewide campaign manager to the

competition. duarte geraldino has more on the changes in less than a week from the iowa caucuses. >> reporter: michele bachmann's campaign is dealing with another blow. just hours after appearing with the minnesota congresswoman at an event on wednesday, her iowa campaign manager state senator ken sorenson defected, joining ron paul's team. >> i think there's clearly two tiers of candidates. i believe ron paul is in the top tier and i'm here to help him. >> but bachmann claims his decision wasn't just based on politics. >> ken sorenson personally told me he was offered a large sum of money to go to work for the ron paul campaign. >> paul's team insists it did not pay sorenson accusing bachmann of slandering the state senator. >> bachmann already had her work cut out for her. a new cnn times poll said only 9% would vote for her at next tuesday's caucus. the poll's biggest surprise, rick santorum, after struggling for months, he suddenly surged to third place with 16%.

that's an 11-point gain since the beginning of december. one-time front-runner newt gingrich, on the other hand, has plummeted to fourth place. ron paul is second. three points behind mitt romney. >> the president says he wants to fundamentally transform america. i kind of like america. >> last night, the former choose governor drew one of his largest crowds yet at a town hall meeting in iowa. he is hoping for an even bigger turnout at next week's caucuses. duarte geraldino for cbs news, washington. still ahead this morning, we're already paying more at the pump now but a threat from iran could have us digging deeper into our pockets. we'll explain. story coming up at 4:42. one state is banning the sale of coff syrup to anyone under 18. at 4:51, the problem it is causing for lawmakers. first, what's it going to be like when you step out the door? grab a coat. olga breese will tell you the details when we return. keep it here.

welcome back to 9news now. we have an update on the breaking news we've been following this morning. an accident at university boulevard east at piney branch in silver spring has now taken the lives of two young adult females. this is according to montgomery county police. the single car crash happened after 3:00 this morning and we're also told a third young female in the car has since been rushed to the hospital. investigators are still trying to find out what caused the crash. also though, traffic is going to be a major issue there this morning. monika samtani joins us now with how to get around the situation and there are some options. monika?

>> there are some options and i'm happy ta say that because you really want to avoid the area of langley park, university boulevard at piney branch road. the scene of the accident. if you need to travel through the area, especially if you get to the beltway, you'll be able to use route 29 to the west. new hampshire to the east and carroll avenue to the south to get between the two. so, again, avoid university boulevard at piney branch road. we'll take a live look from the mdot cameras as well to show you that it is blocked in both directions here, university at piney branch road in langley park inside the beltway. i'll give you more alternate routes and update the situation coming up in my next report. mike? >> well, now our weather forecast for today, no getting around the cold outside. our temperatures are in the 30s, barely 30 degrees inside the beltway. 20s outside. we'll keep our cloudy skies for the morning, midday clearing in the 40s by later on this afternoon and then the clouds sock us in later again tonight. mike? >> thank you, olga. it is time for the first your

money segment, jessica doyle is out covering the breaking news for us. we'll look at some of your money headlines now. stocks slid after renewed worries about europe's debt crisis. the euro fell to a 15-month low against the dollar. that's making american goods more expensive. the dow closed down 140 points yesterday. the nasdaq was up 35 points and the s&p 500 lost about 16. well, 2011 ends with americans paying the highest annual average ever for a gallon of gasoline and with the pending international crisis, it could make the next year 2012 even worse. gary nurenberg explains iran's threat to close an international shipping route could have us all digging deeper to pay for gas. 1/3 of all oil shipped by sea passes through the strait of hormuz which iran said it could close as easily as drinking a glass of water. >> it would increase oil prices and to make it more difficult

for the u.s. to return to recession. >> it is a threat to new sanctions expected from washington and the european community aimed at iran's oil industry, efforts to get iran to back off the development of nuclear weapons. >> it is really a war of nerves. the iranians are really angry at us. they are going to pay a high price for the new sanctions. they know it. they want to send a signal to the u.s. they're trying to get us to back down. >> reporter: the united states navy said wednesday blocking the strait of hormuz will not be tolerated. the iranian navy is nearby conducting military exercises. >> any miscal miscalculation could mean we're drawn into conflict. >> reporter: the united states has the military strength to reopen the strait of h ox rmuz. >> it would mean attacking iranian ballistic missile and rocket sites. >> reporter: a potentially world changing nightmare but

many iranian experts don't believe it will come to that. >> i don't think the iranians will carry through their threat. i think this is a game of chicken. >> reporter: iran itself sells oil that goes through the strait and closing it to shipping would essentially be committing economic suicide. this is a story that will unfold over the next several weeks. a story of war and peace and the economy of the world. gary nurenberg, 9news now. >> a spokeswoman for the u.s. navy's fifth elite said the navy is ready to counter malevolent actions to ensure freedom of navigation. basically, they're ready to keep it open. they're recalling a bear. which one is causing a problem?

welcome back. so, do you like winter? good thing because it is here. wow, it is cold compared to the last couple of days. >> we got a little bit spoiled.

in the seven-day forecast, there are some morning temperatures that are a little colder. right now, most'ses are sitting right around 30, 32 degrees. we do have a couple of 20s outside the beltway. when you factor in the wind chill, we're all feeling like the 20s at this hour. definitely have the layers when you step out. the day planner will feature some sunshine in the morning. we have kind of partly cloudy skies at the moment. we'll break out with a little bit of sunshine say around 10:00, 11:00. it won't last very long. afternoon, clouds will start to move on in. we'll become mostly cloudy as we head in toward the afternoon and evening hours. today's high temperatures should make it up to about 45, 46 degrees at reagan national airport. but then later on tonight, the temperatures drop down dramatically. another chilly start to your friday morning for tomorrow. the forecast overall is fairly quiet pattern for us. at least we're going to keep things dry for the short term. we're cold this morning. we'll have the clouds moving in by later on this afternoon but we will see a very mild forecast as we head from friday

into saturday and we're even looking good for that new year's eve and new year's day forecast over the weekend. i'll give you the details in a couple of seconds. the current temperatures are very cold. it is feeling like 27 at reagan national. feeling like 20 around gaithersburg. we have some cool temperatures across the board for us. overall today, it is going to be mostly cloudy. when we get into the afternoon hours, we'll keep the breezes fairly moderate. i would say 10 to 15-mile-per- hour winds out of the west for most of the afternoon. and even the future cast keeps mainly cloudy skies for much of the daytime hours for today. overnight tonight as we get early into friday morning, some moisture starts to move on through. shouldn't be too much of a factor here for the metropolitan area. most of us will stay dry. we can't rule out a stray shower popping on through. then throughout the day on friday, mostly cloudy skies. very overcast. but temperatures will be a little bit on the mild side. so, for today, plan ahead. highs around 44 to 47 degrees across the board.

again, it will feel much cooler than that. tonight we're down into the 30s once again. our next three days of the forecast will show day by day improvement. first, we move on in with the 40s today. and improvement because yesterday we had the winds which made the 47 and 48 fell much colder. today will feel pretty comfortable. by tomorrow, we're in the middle 50s. we'll keep more sunshine around for saturday. looks like we do have some cold nights ahead of us, particularly if we head into monday and tuesday, we start to return to 40 and 30 degree temperatures. monika? >> two people have died in an accident in langley park. we've been telling you about this morning. inside the beltway, university boulevard is blocked at piney branch road. will you want to avoid the area because the investigation is going to take awhile. if you're planning to head into this area and you need to get to the beltway or around it to the west, you have several options. route 29, you have flower avenue and sleigh go creek.

to the east, you have new hampshire avenue. last chance northbound will be carroll avenue. go ahead and use the alternate routes. if you're planning to use university boulevard north on the belt way itself, you're going to be fine. let's take a look live at the police activity there. again, university boulevard here blocked at piney branch road. a very serious situation here. it will be there for awhile. plan early this morning. i'm going to take you also to a live picture here in springfield. northbound 95 is still quiet here at route 644. if you're exiting to the outer loop, just past the 95 interchange, watch out for the accident. that one just reported. i'll have more on what's going on in maryland coming up again at 4:56. >> monika, thank you. the new year rings in a new law that will limit anyone under 18 from buying cough syrup. this law only affects people in california but as bigad shaban reports, it is the first time cough syrup has been added to

the list. >> reporter: the doctor's office isn't the first place jennifer turns to when she has a cold. the 16-year-old almost always relies on over-the-counter cough syrup. but starting january 1st, jennifer will no longer be able to buy a bottle on her own. california lawmakers are banning the sale of most cough medicines to anyone under 18 because teens are getting high on one of the ingredients. in large doses, dextro met orphan can cause hallucinations, even death. >> it is the number one drug of abuse in children less than 18. more common of marijuana because it is so easily accessible. >> teens will be able to buy the cough syrup if they have a prescription. otherwise, pharmacists will have to check i.d.s for proof of age. an estimated 5.5% of tenth graders got high on cough medicine this year. >> people use it for recreational purposes, taking a half bottle on a daily basis. >> the makers of cough

medicines support the change and are trying to raise awareness of dxm online. >> that was it. i was done. from that point on, i decided that i was done. >> reporter: but this teen isn't convinced the law will prevent abuse. >> they want to get it, they will. it doesn't matter if there is a law against it or not. >> angie says it only makes it harder for people like her who want to take the right dose for the right reason. bigad shaban, cbs news, los angeles. a major recall from the build-a-bear workshop. it is recalling 300,000 colorful heart teddy bears because of choking hazards. the consumer product safety commission says the bear's eyes could loosen, fall out and children could put them in their mouth and choke on them. so far, no injuries have been reported. customers who have one can return it or another bear. ok, time to look at the question of the morning. according to a new study, the average person craves at least one of these things at least five times a day.

is it a, a candy bar. b, a nap. yes, that's the one i choose. c, a hug. put your answer on our facebook page. we would love to hear your comments. we'll reveal the comments to the survey in the 6:00 hour.

it is 4:56. very cold out this morning. some partly cloudy skies to start us out with. our day planner will feature a little bit of sunshine before your lunch break. by the time we get to the afternoon, the clouds will move back in. temperatures today moving into the middle pushing the upper 40s, even milder temperatures for your forecast for tomorrow. monika? >> police are on the scene of a fatal accident from overnight in langley park blocking

university boulevard here at tiny branch road inside the beltway. please do choose alternate routes. this investigation and cleanup will take awhile. i'll have more alternate routes coming up for you in my next report at 5:00. mike, back to you. >> thanks, monika. an oregon football player made a life saving play yesterday and it had nothing to do with football. the oregon ducks were in the rose bowl, were enjoying a meal during the beef bowl which is a rose bowl tradition. defensive lineman noted somebody was choking. he came to the rescue. >> the first -- he was -- the guy seemed a little old. i didn't want to break his ribs. he seemed like he could handle a full force. he popped it out. >> the heimlich maneuver of course is what saved the man's life. thank goodness he was there and knew how to do it. >> each year, the library of congress adds new titles. they're deemed to be culturally and historically significant. manuel gallegus tells us which

ones made the list. >> my mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. >> reporter: 1994's forrest gump is one of 25 films the library of congress chose this year to preserve for future generations. the newly-honored classic spanned decades from 1912 silent melodrama cry of the children from child labor to walt disney's personal favorite, bambi. >> it is a film that succeeds with each generation. it captures a new age of viewers. it is one of those films that endures from one generation to the next. >> some are based on true stories like stand and deliver, part of a wave of movies latino film makers made in the '80s. and norma rae, a drama about unionization and the empowerment of women. it is actually the public that votes on which movies can be considered. but any new movies out now will have to wait. they have to be at least ten years old. >> the current films, i don't

think any of them would belong in there. >> the shawshank redemption is a film i say should be added to the registry. >> the library chooses movies that reflect american culture and history. from the controversial depiction of african-americans to the cold war hysteria of alien invaders in 1952's war of the worlds. even one of the greatest villains of all-time, hannibal lecter made the cut in silence of the lambs. >> i ate his liver with a nice chianti. >> something for every taste. manuel gallegus, cbs news, new york. we're starting our 5:00 a.m. newshour with some breaking news this morning. police are on the scene of a deadly crash in silver spring, maryland. this crash happened at 611 university boulevard. we're learning two young women have died. 9news now reporter jessica doyle is live on the scene with more on the on-go